No matter how unmotivated you feel before starting a workout, it’s very rare that you actually regret doing it once you’ve finished. In fact, you’re usually only a couple of minutes in when you forget all about your pre-workout misgivings and get into the swing of it – and, according to the participants in a new YouGov survey, after just ten minutes you’ll be feeling positively euphoric.
The poll of over 2,000 British adults was undertaken on behalf of sports retailer Wiggle and found that, on average, people who exercise three times a week reach a natural high from their activity just nine minutes and 44 seconds after they start.
For some, the high arrives even quicker. Women tend to reach this euphoric moment before men (you may insert your own joke here, we’ll rise above it), after nine minutes and seven seconds on average, compared with ten minutes and 20 seconds for men.
More importantly, the high arrives at different times depending on the sport you are taking part in as well. Runners rejoice – it is you who climax first, after eight minutes and 28 seconds. The average is ten minutes and 35 seconds for walkers or hikers and nine minutes and 17 seconds for those taking exercise classes.
Hopefully this should act as enough motivation to get up and go when you’re wavering before a workout, because you’re only ten minutes away from enjoying your exercise. Sure, after that there might be some rough patches – no-one is saying the natural high will last for the rest of your session – but you can be pretty much sure you’ll feel good afterwards.
Michael Caulfield, sports psychologist at The Sporting Edge, hopes that the survey’s findings will encourage people to get moving.
“It is often easier to think of reasons not to exercise, but there is a very distinct moment where your mindset changes and you take action,” says Caulfield. “Once you do, you never look back at running or exercise and say, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that’.”
